What Could Have Been
by Love Goddess Sparkles
Summary: A 'What if' one shot of what could have happened in the Forest of Dean with the Golden Trio plus Ginny. Canon Character Death. Gore. Blood.


**Author's Note:** So, I did this as a 'what if' kind of thing for my Week Seven entry for AlwaysPadfoot's 52 Weeks of Writing. -shrug- It's whatever I guess, definitely not my best.

Compulsory Prompts (Use One): Cold

Optional Prompts: 'You said everything was going to be okay!'

Bonus Genre: Tragedy

Bonus Prompt: Blood

* * *

**What Could Have Been**

* * *

"Harry, look out!"

There was a large explosion and suddenly he was airborne, in the air everything seemed to slow down. The world was dim, his ears ringing from the blast and he couldn't see anything beyond his nose from the smoke and debris even with his glasses on.

Time sped up again and he landed on his back hard, mossy dirt and leaves hardly cushioned the fall. His wounds protested, brain cataloging his dislocated left shoulder and severely sprained right ankle. Jagged cuts and scratches littered his body and he ached – Merlin did he ache. Would it be so bad to just lie here for a bit longer or at least until he could hear properly?

"Harry! Get up, Harry!"

Ron entered his vision, blood spattered and dirtied like he was. He pulled Harry off the ground with a surprising show of strength, he yelled in pain at his shoulder being jostled. Harry could see Hermione and Ginny a few feet from them cast spells and curses one after another. They were running again, Ron had already let go of his arm and was casting spells of his own.

They were being chased by Snatchers with a grudge, how lucky of them. Hermione had apparated them to the Forest of Dean when they had been spotted. Run or be killed, there was no question on what they did next.

"_Flippendo Tria, Bombarda, Expelliarmus!"_ Harry looked to his right to see Hermione cast spells in rapid succession. She was standing back to back with Ginny, whom was also putting up quite a fight. She'd already taken down two wizards without killing them and was covering Hermione's back. The red-head was in the middle of deflecting a particular nasty curse when she was felled by a wayward cutting curse.

"Ginny, no!" Ron screamed, watching his sister go down and Hermione blast her opponent away to tend to her friend. He blindly grabbed at Harry, all but dragging him toward the two girls. Hermione was trying her best to stop the bleeding but the curse only created new gashed that oozed dark red lifeblood. Ginny was fading fast and there was nothing they could do. Ron switched with Hermione, falling down beside his sister just as Ginny took in her last breath. There were several loud cracks of apparition that rang out through the forest. They were partially surrounded. Harry stood, wincing when his leg with the sprained ankle almost gave way. He looked down to see that it wasn't a sprained ankle like he thought but a small chunk of wood sticking out of his ankle.

"Ron, we have to go, I'm sorry but we really have to go now." He muttered down at his friend, watching the dark robed wizards before shift from side to side predatorily. Once those words were spoken everything became of blur of dodging, running, and spell fire.

Harry and Hermione were running a head of Ron, turning every few seconds to cast their own spells at the onese chasing them. A fire ball whizzed past Harry's ear, burning it slightly and singeing his jacket. It slammed into a tree he'd ducked behind.

"We have to get out of here!" he yelled, sliding down a small incline and using it to push off and propel him faster.

"We need to apparate!" Hermione called back. "But we have to do it together so we don't get separated."

Harry chanced a glance behind him to check on Ron, it was only a split second decision that cost him. The most excruciatingly tearing, ripping, and searing pain he'd ever known slashed across his chest, and face. His vision went white and he was falling, the cold, damp forest floor mashed into the side of his face – doing nothing to cushion his fall.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed; the first to reach him followed by Ron a second later. She rolled him over and gasped. Harry reached out and grabbed her wrist, making a pained gurgling noise. "D-don't worry, Harry, you'll be okay." She said quietly, they all knew subconsciously that it was a lie.

Ron swore, placing his hands on Harry's chest making the teen cry out and squirm. "Hermione, you have to apparate us! Far away, do it, Now!" he yelled, pulling the girl closer to the two of them. The breath-taking, twisting, and stretching feeling of apparition encompassed the trio and they were gone.

-o0o-

When the trio dropped onto the ground still surrounded by trees Hermione momentarily panicked, thinking she hadn't managa to move them from the Forest of Dean. She realized that the surroundings were different and calmed slightly before turning to her companions.

Ron was lying beside her dazed, shaking his head to clear the disorienting feeling of apparition. He jerked to attention suddenly, head whipping around. "Harry!"

That single name was like a bucket of ice water on her being, Hermione quickly set to work trying to heal him. Her hands were shaking and she could barely see through the tears building in her eyes. There was so much blood, it was everywhere and she couldn't think of the spells to heal him.

"Mione," Ron called urgently while pulling off his jacket then his shirt to staunch the bleeding from the gashes on Harry's chest. "Hermione, help me!"

"I-I can't!" she cried, she watched her boyfriend lift Harry's shirt to examine the wound on his stomach and abrupt turned to empty her stomach's content. Harry's intestines were spilling out of the wound on to the ground on either side of his body. "He's going to die." She said brokenly, looking down at her blood stained hands.

"Don't say that!" Ron yelled at her and she flinched backward. He'd never yelled at her like that, ever. "Why don't you help me save him instead of just sitting there, you bitch!"

Hermione gagged and tears streamed down her face, "B-but I can't think of anything that could help him…"

The red-head snarled, pressing the balled up shirt harder into Harry's chest with Hermione sitting off to the side uselessly. It was then that she noticed Harry wasn't breathing anymore. Ron must have noticed because he tried to do CPR, something that she had taught him about when they were still in school.

"Ron." She sobbed, tentatively placing a hand on his shoulder. "He's gone, Ron, you have to stop."

"No he isn't, don't say that kind of stuff." Ron mumbled, brows creasing with concentration and denial clearly coloring his tone.

Hermione was silent, arms wrapped around herself tightly and shaking.

"You said everything was going to be okay but – but everything has turned to shit!" he yelled, falling back on his heels and looking toward the cloudy skies. "Why did it have to be us, huh? First Ginny, and now Harry. Why?!"

"I don't know…" Hermione said, staring ahead of her blankly. "I don't know.."


End file.
